It was published a few years back with UK indie publisher, Pendragon Press, but only in limited numbers. So the folks at Tor UK decided it would be a great idea to make it available to buy as a digital edition – and for less than two quid. Quite a few people have asked about this title over the last couple of years, so it only seemed logical to bring it back in this format. Of course, it’s much more expensive to do these things with another print run, but one of the cool things about ebooks is being able to publish digital versions of books that wouldn’t otherwise have been released.

I feel I’ve grown a heck of a lot as a writer since this book. I wrote it when I was 23 or 24 years old, and that was an age when I was experimenting with themes and finding my feet. My outlook on the world is different, as is my awareness of various issues, but I’m still proud of this little tome.

Anyway, The Reef being a small press title, there’s not a huge amount of review coverage, but there’s a good review at the Wertzone here:

The Reef (****) is a very solid and enjoyable fantasy which achieves the enviable task of not actually feeling like an overt fantasy despite the near-constant presence of nonhuman species and fantastical concepts.

… a metaphor for the relationship between all living things, and their interaction on every level. Just as the characters explore uncharted territory, both physically and psychologically, Newton treads new ground in his attempt to bring literary concerns to the fantasy genre.

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(I love THE REEF. Overjoyed that it is back in print, although not sure what does that does to my 2010 thunkery about its future collectibility – http://www.pornokitsch.com/2010/07/collectible-titles-the-reef-by-mark-charan-newton.html)

Off to the side… I honestly can’t see how they either help or hurt the value of a collectible book. I suppose for those just collecting a scarce book so they can read it, this might drive the value down. But equally likely, this brings the book back to people’s attention, and fans will want a physical copy…

I tried getting this via WHS Smith and then direct from the publisher. Even though it was still available for order on the web site Chris emailed me to say that it was all sold out – most copies went to Waterstone’s apparently – and the ones available online were a little too pricey considering they were only marked as ‘good’, which I’m not sure is a good enough condition for the prices they are asking.

Having had Kindle installed on my PC for a few weeks I decided to search for some free books and what came up as a recommendation? The Reef. So, The Reef is the first purchase of an ebook I’ve made through Amazon. Great price too. Would still like a physical copy but I’m looking forward to reading this.

I’ve heard a rumour that one of the Waterstone’s stores in Manchester actually has a physical copy on the shelves… Might be worth a call if you’re keen on a physical copy! Meanwhile, welcome to the ebook world!

Do you know if it’s going to be available for anything other than Kindle/iTunes? I checked every other seller I could think of and couldn’t find it, including Kobo, Sony, Books on Board, Fictionwise, etc. (Amazon and Apple both use proprietary formats or protection that prevent them from being read on any other devices, so they’re the 2 sellers I can’t buy from – basically everyone else uses EPub with Adobe DRM that can be read on anything except a Kindle).

Could be geographic restrictions at play (I’m in Canada) – I checked iTunes here and it wasn’t available there either. It seems I could buy it from Amazon still, which is a bit odd – usually these days if it’s available in Canada via Amazon the other sellers have it too unless it’s some sort of Amazon exclusive. None of Kobo, Sony, Barnes & Noble, Books on Board or Fictionwise have it. I guess I can resort to buying from Amazon, stripping the DRM and converting formats, but I prefer not to do that (even though it isn’t illegal here yet).

The only ebooks of yours I can find at all from Canadian sellers are City of Ruin and Book of Transformations – interestingly Nights of Villjamur doesn’t seem to be available either.